Gavin Blair - An Illustrated Guide to Samurai History and Culture: From the Age of Musashi to Contemporary Pop Culture
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An Illustrated Guide to Samurai History and Culture: From the Age of Musashi to Contemporary Pop Culture: summary, description and annotation
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The Samurai are continuously celebrated as the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. They ruled Japan for centuries, finally uniting the nation after a prolonged period of brutal war and bloodshed. Though famed for their loyalty, honor, and chivalry, they could also be treacherous, bloodthirsty, and merciless.
This book tells the story of their rise and eventual demise through carefully curated images, both historical and contemporary, with an engaging and authoritative text by Gavin Blair--a noted commentator on all things Japanese. It exposes the myths surrounding the Samurai and reveals their many secrets, while examining their enduring influence on global culture in anime, manga, books, and video games.
Gorgeously illustrated with color prints, paintings, and photos throughout, this book features detailed chapters on:
- The rise of the Japanese warrior class and how they established their grip on political power
- Rival clans, legendary Samurai, the unification of warlord states, and famous female Samurai
- Samurai tools of the trade--swords, bows, spears, guns, castles, and armor
- The cult of Bushido, the fabled warriors code
- The transformation of Samurai into cultured gentlemen warriors, poets, and aristocrats
- Their legacy in modern world literature, media, film, and popular culture
- And so much more!
A foreword by leading Samurai historian Alexander Bennett, the celebrated translator of works such as The Complete Musashi and Hagakure, introduces readers to these fascinating warriors, who continue to captivate modern audiences.
Gavin Blair: author's other books
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full cavalry o-yoroi armor by a
castle wall depicted in an Edo
period print Sixty-Nine Post
Stations of the Kisokaido . This
is the ninth station, Kumagaya
and the samurai Kojiro Naoie
is pictured.
(17981861)
Foreword by Alexander Bennett
THE RISE OF A WARRIOR CLASS
THE TAIRA AND THE MINAMOTO
THE KAMIKAZE DIVINE WIND
SPEARS, FIREARMS, CASTLES AND ARMOR
AN AGE OF CEASELESS WAR
FROM MUSASHI TO YOSHITSUNE
VIDEO GAMES
JAPAN AND BEYOND
MYSTIQUE
called a samurai. The designation is usually reserved
for people who have overcome great odds, and who
demonstrate magnanimity and composure amid
adversity. Although samurai status was abolished a
century-and-a-half ago, nothing represents the
masculine ideal more aptly to modern Japanese. Even
national sports teams carry on their name: Samurai
Blue (soccer) and Samurai Japan (baseball). There is
nothing particularly thrilling about being called a
farmer, even though it was they who made up the
backbone of Japanese society throughout history by
keeping the rest of it alive!
to Japanese people. Since Japan opened its doors to
the world following the Meiji Restoration of 1868,
Westerners have been fascinated by the imagery and
culture of Japans feudal warrior, which combines
extreme violence with selflessness and profound beauty.
Incomprehensible customs such as seppuku, or ritual
suicide by cutting ones abdomen open, appalled
observers. At the same time, the fortitude of mind, the
poetry, literature, and art shaped by these men-of-war
have been lauded as being nothing short of phenom
enal. The sensitivity exhibited was genuine, and emanat
ed from embracing the evanescence of ones existence.
samurai. I am reminded of a popular teaching in budo
(Japanese martial arts, which are the most obvious
vestige of samurai culture in the world today):
Do-chu-sei Calmness within movement. This is the
state in which the body is moving energetically, but
the mind remains perfectly calm. The opposite is
called sei-chu-do movement within calmnessin
which the mind is primed for attack, but the body is
completely still. From a historical perspective, this
notion equates to chaos in order, and order in chaos.
enhance the name of their family and were fiercely
competitive in ensuring that their pristine reputa
tions would last for posterity. In this sense, their
interminable quest for honor became inextricably
linked to combat prowess and demonstrations of
unremitting valor. For this reason, their seven
centuries as the political rulers of Japan are character
ized by the balancing of chaos and order. For exam
ple, the principle of bunbu-ryodo the brush and
sword in accordi.e., proficiency in both the ways of
literary and military arts, became a mainstay of the
samurai ideal. In other words, the warriors sensibili
ties, which were refined through appreciation and
knowledge of the finer things in life, served as a
counterbalance to the cruel realties of the violent
world he inhabited.
samurai lived according to a distinctive code of ethics
that continually evolved over time and was flavored
by various regional peculiarities. The samurais canon
one of the Ikko-Ikki bands of peasants and their
allies who fought the samurai in the 16th century.
the warrior. It became one of the first internationally
recognized Japanese words over a century ago, with
the publication in English of Nitobe Inazos Bushido:
The Soul of Japan (1899). A bestseller to this day,
Nitobes book attempts to explain the well-ordered
ethos of the samurai as being centered on the seven
virtues of rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect,
sincerity, honor, and loyalty. It is upon Nitobes thesis
that most people in Japan and abroad now glean their
understanding of the samurai mindset. The reality of
their existence, however, was far more multifaceted
and complex than the prevailing depictions of the
samurai, namely as paragons of traditional morality
and all that is majestic, suggest.
understanding of the samurai is influenced predomi
nantly by novels, manga, anime, and movies. Ironically,
even academic discourse on the samurai is, to a greater
or lesser extent, unwittingly inspired by these rendi
tions from popular culture. As was the case centuries
ago when samurai actually existed, the line between
fact and fiction remains a very hazy one indeed.
catching addition to the body of work that seeks to
identify misnomers, and provide the fundamental facts
needed to make sense of the samurai legacy. As the old
Japanese proverb Kagi no ana kara ten wo nozoku
goes, from a gap as small as a keyhole one thinks one
is looking at something as vast as the heavens. In con
trast to that, this splendid volume portrays the vast
experience of samurai culturefrom their tools,
important historical events, representative individuals,
and female counterparts, through to their famous
portrayals in popular cultureallowing the reader
to hone in on reliable truths to facilitate an under
standing of what made the samurai tick. The readers
interest will undoubtedly be piqued to investigate
further, and so this book is the perfect introduction
into the simultaneously chaotic but aesthetically
sublime realm of samurai existence.
known as Minamoto no Raiko, a renowned
warrior of his clan, pictured here with a kite
adorned with a demon.
(11391170), a samurai famed for his archery
prowess, being rescued by tengu demons sent by
the retired Emperor Sutoku (11191164).
armor dating from 1662, known as tosei gusoku
or full modern armor, with a breastplate ( do )
made of iron, gauntlets and sleeves, partly in
response to the introduction of firearms to the
battlefield. The breastplate is adorned with an
image of the fearsome Buddhist deity Fudo
Myoo (Acala), who was worshipped as a
defender of the nation, and two of his acolytes.
son of Masashige, at the Battle of Shijonawate,
where he committed seppuku, portrayed by
kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro IX.
THE RISE OF A WARRIOR CLASS
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